10 things

I don’t know about you, but I’ve got a ton of stuff going on pretty much all the time. And I do mean all the time. I work two different jobs, attempt to do things with this blog, and hang out with my friends, among other busy-bee things. Some days, it’s hard to keep my shit together.

I don’t consider myself to be a totally scatterbrained person, but I’ll admit to being borderline scatterbrained. There’s a fine line and I walk it often. How do I stay sane? By organizing my life with the beauty that is technology.

I’m not a techy girl, Reader, but boy, do I live and die by my apps. You’ll have to pry my iPhone 5 (still too cheap to get a new one, though I desperately need it) and MacBook from my cold, dead hands before I’ll give up these organizational godsends. And the best part about all of them? They sync across all my devices – including that iPad mini I have and rarely use.

Looking to get your shit organized or attempting to simplify your life? Check these out.

READER. I’ve been a terrible blogger. I know, I know, I’ve been absent for a good three… maybe even FOUR… weeks… This isn’t an April Fools joke. I for reals left you for a while.

And I’m really, really sorry. The good news is that I’ve got lots to tell you. (Because let’s face it – even though some of my stories are crazy, they’re totally, TOTALLY, entertaining.) The better news is that I’m not going to do it all in one post. (You wouldn’t want to be stuck reading the same post for a full day, would you?)

I’ll make a big “to do” post on goals for April tomorrow; but for now, I think we should just get caught up on where things have gone since we last, erm, “spoke.”

So, let’s get down to business.

Our school got a new teacher, Brandi. She’s super-awesome and the even cooler news is that she and my little sis, KSD, share the exact same birthday. That’s right, folks, random birthday twins. As a result, I feel super protective of her and have been dragging her around to all my activities, including dragging her to Busan for a day of fun. (She doesn’t seem to mind, though, so don’t get the idea that I’ve been evil or anything…)

I posted a blog post written by my friend, Anna Wickham, about being a little bit brave. Hers is the first in a series I’m planning to carry through much of this year. If you missed it, you can read it here. You should also check out Anna’s blog, The Worldly Blend.

I have been out on not one, but TWO Tinder dates since posting about Project Tinder. One of them was great, the other one was the worst nightmare I’ve ever had while awake. More on that in a coming post. Trust me, you’ll want to read all about that one…

I am totally behind on my reading schedule because of the aforementioned badawful Tinder date… Basically, I fell off the bandwagon on everything because I was so shaken up by that situation… I also went back to ingesting sugary stuff… In essence, the March intentions are almost all completely smashed. :( But you know, whatever.

I paid off a GIANT credit card! I had $1000 left on one that I’d been carrying a balance on since 2010. I also closed that account in 2010 because I couldn’t afford the regular monthly payments… The company agreed to lower my payments if I closed the account; so I had a credit card with a nasty balance that I couldn’t even use. FINALLY paid that b***h off! And you know what? Once my dollars transfer into my account in a couple of days, I’m going to pay off another one that is sitting at $1875. Paying down credit card debt never felt so liberating and painful all at the same time. (That’s a lot of money I would have preferred to use elsewhere, you know?)

LOOK!

I went back to book club and invited the ladies to join me for a food project I’m working on for the city. We ate at a buffet/steakhouse until we were about to explode and then walked to the nearby river and played a hilarious game of Cards Against Humanity. Not surprisingly, I won. (I’m truly a terrible person on the inside…)

Shea, Brandi, and Caitlin…

Caitlin, me, and Brandi…

It’s officially spring in SK and my allergies that I always try to ignore are kicking in, full-swing. I had BKFF take me to a doctor this morning because the last two nights, I’ve been waking up. Ugh, it’s gross and I’m semi-miserable. Yuck, yuck, yuck. At least the cherry blossoms are beautiful, though!

I started taking a Korean class again and it is way more challenging this time around than it was last time. The teacher is using a different book series (which I don’t really care for….) and she doesn’t speak English in the class except when I ask a question and need clarification. She is really sweet and high-energy, which is good because I need someone exciting to keep me awake; but most of the time I have no idea what’s going on… She speaks so fast. I figure the challenge is a good thing, but sometimes I ask myself why the hell I signed up for the class in the first place…

I’ve been questioning whether or not leaving Korea next year is the right move for me… In some ways, I am ready to go home and be there for a while. However, on the other hand, I keep thinking how great it would be to have just one more year to save now that I don’t have all that credit card debt hanging over my head. I’ll never have another opportunity to live like this again, most likely – to have such low living costs and the ability to see this part of the world. I read yet another “wanderlust-y” article today on Wander Onwards that inspired me to change my plans again, so, here I am, considering change… The next step in my plan seems so close, and yet, I’m not sure if I want this part to end yet… I’m sure more on this will come up soon.

I’m currently in the process of getting a Korean drivers license so KBFF and I can make a pilgrimage to the new IKEA Korea. She’s never been and I truly believe she needs to be subjected to the awesomeness that is the maze of IKEA. Plus, I really want a lamp and they’re crazy expensive here.

So there you have it. Ten things to get you quickly updated on where things are with yours truly. I promise that I’m going to be back with you regularly, twice a week, from here on out. Sorry I was gone for a while, Reader. I had to recuperate from that Tinder date and my schedule just went crazy for a while. I’m so glad we’re getting back together – I really missed you!

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Enough about me… How have you been?! I hope to hear from you in the comments!

You may not know this, Reader, but “Friends” is my all-time favorite television show. Like, ever. I finally made an effort to personally own all ten seasons on DVD; and for the last six months or so since I started to accumulate them, I play them over and over and over again. I don’t actually sit and watch them every time, but I just like having the noise. And I always, always laugh at Chandler’s jokes. Could I be any more addicted?

I wasn’t allowed to watch “Friends” growing up; the first time I actually ever watched more than an episode or two was in college. I found out a girl living on my floor in the dorms had the entire series, so I started borrowing them from her, a season or two at a time. Reader, I was so engrossed that I made it through ten seasons in a mere three weeks. I even skipped some pretty important statistics classes to sit and laugh at the characters I came to love.

Even though I was a little aware of the fact that technology was changing life around me rapidly and that there were things about “Friends” that were becoming – or in some cases, already – outdated, there were plenty of things I observed on the show that I hoped and expected to experience once I became a “real adult.”

Well. Having been a said “real adult” for several years now, I can tell you that I have been sorely disappointed in some ways. My life has totally not turned out like the lives of the “Friends” party.

Here are ten things I thought life would be like or that I would have once I became a “real grown up”:

1. I would record a cute, corny answering machine message.

There are a few times when we hear the outgoing messages throughout the years of all the “Friends” gang – when Rachel moves in with Phoebe and they alternate every other word (before Phoebe changes it because Rachel gets all the “good words”) or when Ross moves in temporarily with Chandler and Joey and makes a message to the tune of that “We Will Rock You” song. I’ll never do this. No one has a home phone anymore or a physical answering machine, for that matter. I’ll never get to share this fun with a roommate, should I ever have another one. Everyone has their own cell phone now, and messages are not shared. Bummer.

Like this:

In twenty-six minutes, it will officially be my birthday in Asia. To me, it’s just another mundane Monday. I won’t mention it to my co-workers, though everyone will know and they will purchase a cake (I assume, despite the fact that I’ve been making my own chocolate birthday cupcakes, six at a time, for the last two hours.). I won’t mention it to my students.

I try not to make a big deal out of it because I feel like after a while when I still lived at home, we just stopped making a big deal out of it. It faded. My three years of high school, my parents were either actually on vacation or returning from one on my birthday.

I suppose since that time, I’ve just learned to not make a huge deal out of it. The luster and excitement just wore off.

But tomorrow… tomorrow I want to be different.

I want to look back over the last year that I’ve had. It’s been pretty awesome.

Today’s “Daily Post” prompt seemed amusingly appropriate as I finish out the weekend and roll into my next birthday on Monday. The prompt?

“Present-day you meets 10-years-ago you for coffee. Share with your younger self the most challenging thing, the most rewarding thing, and the most fun thing they have to look forward to.”

I’m going to do things a little differently, and write a letter to myself. So, here you go, Reader:

Dear Me,

Wow, have you changed. Little did you know that ten years later, you’d be living halfway across the world trying to figure life out. And you know what? Overall, it’s been good.

It’s been really hard sometimes, but it’s also been really good.

Here’s a list of ten things I wish you/we/I could have heard ten years ago. Ten things I’m saying to you now, wishing this were real. Maybe things would have been different had you/we/I heeded this kind of advice (had it been given), but we’ll never know.

You did all the right things. Don’t look back now.

1. Take care of your body.

Learn to eat healthy foods sooner. Find an exercise you enjoy. You will totally be regretting this later and after you pack on 30 unwanted pounds post-graduation.

2. Your heart will get broken… a few times. But you come out stronger.

There will be pain. You will cry a lot. But you will grow so much. Grasp that independence that you once had before those guys. Run with it. Run like the wind. Learn to be you.